Page 363 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE FRENCH CAMPAIGN 1870 - 1871 345

Battery and the cavalry was represented by about 200 cavalrymen, just suffi-
cient for scouting purposes. It was certainly true that about 10.000 mobilisés
were still present in the army, but the events of Dijon had shown what con-
fidence could be given to them. Finally, the troops, with no tents, no shoes,
no winter clothes, mostly without overcoats, could not possibly have been
used to carry out long and intensive operations in an extremely cold weath-
er, since the thermometer read 18° below zero.
General Crémer was not convinced by the issues raised by Garibaldi and,
since a single commander was lacking and each one did what he liked the
most, the French general decided on the 14 th to march on Nuits and Dijon
with his 12.000 men and repeated his request of aid to Garibaldi. But also
Werder was preparing a manoeuvre on Nuits to disband the French troops
positioned in the valley of the Saône. The clash between Crémer’s Battalions
and Werder’s 12 Battalions, 7 Squadrons and 6 Batteries, about 10.000 men,
occurred on the 18 th in Nuits. The French fought, and fought even bravely,
for the whole day, but the Prussians prevailed and Crémer had to disorderly
withdraw to Beaune that same night. At about midday, Crémer, having
realised the turn the fight was taking, had telegraphed Garibaldi to rush to
his help. The general, at 3pm, called Ricciotti and ordered him to immedi-
ately board with his Brigade the trains that would be prepared and rush to
Crémer’s aid. At dead of night, the first convoy left Ricciotti’s troops a few
kilometres from Nuits; Ricciotti could not continue to the city as it was occu-
pied by the Baden troops and therefore he could just take up position to con-
trast a possible and very likely pursuit towards Bearne where the French had
converged to get reorganised.
In the night of the 19 th Crémer gave up with the idea of resuming an
offensive the day after, as he had informed Garibaldi, or of waiting for the
enemy to advance, and had withdrawn to Chagny. The troops of the Army
of the Vosges that had already arrived and those who were being transported
went back to Autun; the Baden troops, as for them, went back to Dijon.
The watch over the huge front assigned to the Army of the Vosges and
stretching for about 150 miles from the Ouche to Château-Chinon, became
more and more difficult because of the exceptionally harsh weather; never-
theless, the 3 rd and 4 th Brigades took shifts to accomplish this difficult task
that enormously tired and exhausted the men. Of what was taking place in
the west, nothing precise was known; only contradictory, vague and often
alarming news reported the movement of many and strong columns in the